Wednesday, November 1, 2017

Spiritual Awakening vs Soul Awakening

I thought to start this blog it would be beneficial to discuss the difference between a Spiritual Awakening and a Soul Awakening. In the last 6 months, I have read so much about "awakening" but I feel there is one common misconception. "awakening" isn't just about spiritual awakening. There is also a soul awakening!
No matter where you look currently on the internet you can find article after article on Spiritual Awakening. This particular awakening is when one starts to question their religion or spirituality and seek answers. These answers could lead to a change in beliefs, religions or rituals associated with a religion or belief system. This mostly affects only a part of our life with very little bleed over into other parts of our lives such as relationships, jobs and so on.
However, a Soul Awakening can affect every part of one’s life. Relationships, Job, Religion and Spirituality, EVERY aspect of your life. This can happen one of two ways. The first is that we come gently into our awakening on our own. We start to realize that we are not happy in our current lives that something feels like it is missing. We start searching for what it is that we are missing, why we aren’t happy in our current lives. We look to change things, embrace change and expand. We quit jobs that drain us, end relationships that are toxic and don’t make us happy, we move to a new place that offers more of what our soul needs, we search out answers to our spirituality. One or all of these things can happen.

Sometimes our darkest nights can be the beginning to our brightest days.

Then there is the not so gentle way to a soul awakening. The universe, God, Goddess, whatever your beliefs, are no longer allowing us to be stuck. To live in our familiar routines that make us unhappy. To no longer say "I made my bed and now I have to lie in it". To no longer believe we are who we have convinced ourselves we are.
So many of us are being forced to wake up (or as I like to say "pushed out of a plane without a parachute") and see that there is more! More than toxic jobs, toxic relationships, depression, hating ourselves.
We are asked (not so gently) or TOLD to find our truth and above all to find our happiness! To see that even though we have made choices that we have other choices we can make and be better for it. To be free, to let our true selves shine! This can come in the form of being fired from that toxic job, a partner deciding they cannot be in the relationship anymore, crisis in faith and beliefs, trouble with family.
You now find yourself on this path that you didn’t see coming and you are asked to step up and step out and find you.
I say these words having gone the harder path. I was pushed out of that plane without a parachute. Told to fly or die. I lost a toxic job and a toxic relationship all within a month of each other. I was asked to step up and find myself. To stop staying in situations that were bad for me because I have the need to take care of others. I was stopping myself from learning lessons that I needed as well as stopping those I stayed with to learn the lessons they need to learn. Martyr syndrome (a blog for another day lol). In the last 9 months, I have come far in my journey and it definitely has not been an easy one. But every day I see change and growth and, believe it or not, happiness. Though I still struggle with some things, I am the happiest I have ever been in my life. No life is not perfect, nor am I and never will be as we are human after all, but I strive now to live and not just be. I strive to work on my past, learn the lessons that I was and am meant to learn and to move forward. To find and do the things that make me happy. To never again live with what if’s. I am pursuing a career that I love and allows me to help others without falling into Martyr syndrome and will help me to reach my life goals. I am growing as a person, a mother, a partner, a friend and an artist. Had I had the courage and insight I would have chosen this path for myself instead of being thrown out of the plane. For it is the best thing that has happened to me. For once in my life I know who I am.
While this is not an easy journey for anyone to experience there is light and love on the other side. Be brave! Don't let fear, your past or who you have convinced yourself you are hold you back from making hard decisions that will only make your life better in the end.